FALCONS STAYING UP FRONT IN RACE FOR AAC
It’s the month of January and that means All American Conference (AAC) basketball has fully started and is underway. Saturday afternoon had another AAC matchup in the wide open girls side of the conference. The Saturday special featured a battle of the conference birds with The Austintown-Fitch Falcons battling last year’s conference champions, The Canfield Cardinals!
The Falcons jumped ahead early with a 15-8 advantage after a quarter of play. Both teams would subsequently lock things down defensively in the second quarter, this time Canfield would have the edge, being a bucket better than Fitch 7-5 in quarter number two. However, Fitch still managed to hold the 20-15 lead at the halftime buzzer.
The second half started with Canfield making a run to get within striking distance of tying or taking the lead in the ballgame. But every time The Cardinals got close, The Falcons had a response and once again it was with the defense. Holding Canfield to a single digit score for the third quarter in a row, Fitch added to their lead with a 12-8 third quarter to reclaim a 9 point advantage at 32-23 heading into the final quarter of regulation. The Cards put together their best quarter offensively in the fourth, but it was a stalemate with both teams scoring 11 points in the fourth, seeing Fitch get their second conference victory with the 43-34 win over Canfield!
Ayla Ray led all scorers with 19 points for Fitch, earning her Player of the Game honors! Following Ray was Rachedl Spalding who had 7 points and Kylie Folkwein who finished with 5 points. Meanwhile, The Cards were led by Jenna Triveri who had 15 points and Camie Dill who ended with 9 points.
Fitch (10-3)(2-0) will now keep themselves in AAC action when they host The Boardman Spartans (8-3)(1-0) on Wednesday, January 10th with a 7 p.m. tip-off. Canfield (6-5)(0-2) will also be in action on Wednesday when they are on the road, once again, to attempt to gain their first conference win of the season against The Howland Tigers (9-2)(1-0). YSN is your home for AAC basketball all season long with live games, scores, stats, stories and more!
